


Max hates the silence

by Scout3516



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Child Abuse, Child Neglect, David is there to help though, Max hates silence, dadvid, technically it's just a slap but it's still abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 11:36:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15840474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scout3516/pseuds/Scout3516
Summary: Max hates the silence





	Max hates the silence

Max hated the silence. He hated it more than he hated anything else, he hated it more than he hated David. Which was saying something. But he’d rather die than let anyone know about his irrational hatred for the quiet. So, over the summer he just never mentioned it, which worked for the most part, but tonight seemed to just like screwing him up. The whole stupid night was a disaster, he couldn’t wait to just get to bed and sleep.

First, David insisted on telling scary stories, but the idiot actually managed to terrify everyone into running around hiding. It took over an hour for Gwen and David to find all of the others! Then Nikki got him wet from shaking herself dry like a dog, because of course she hid in the lake, and he had to have another shower!

But the worst of it had to be this very moment. Max laid in his tent, it was dead silent. Neil’s usual snores were mysteriously gone, and not even the crickets made a sound. It was like mother nature was purposely doing it, ‘hey! Let’s see who can fuck Max over the quickest!’ if trees could speak, he’d be sure they’d be shouting it. The worst part was that he almost wanted the trees to be shouting that to the world.

He really fucking hated the silence. He got up without another thought and wandered around the campgrounds for a bit, making sure to step on all the twigs and fallen leaves he could. And if there weren’t any, he made sure to scurry his feet in the dirt, anything to make at least a little sound. He hated this, and he hated this stupid camp. Usually the camp was fine when it came to sounds, it was never quiet. There was always some sort of sound happening, whether it was the wind, some wild animals, or even the snores of the other campers.

So why was tonight any different? Why was it tonight that things went quiet? There had to be a reason, there was always a reason. He stopped walking as he looked at the sky above him, it was really beautiful, the stars shined brightly against the darkness of the sky, almost as if it was glitter thrown onto black paper. He frowned as he kept walking, he hated the silence more than anything, and while he thought his hatred for it was unnatural and weird, he wondered if it was, and if others had the same fear.

Not that he really feared the quiet, he knew there was nothing to fear when it came to the emptiness that only sound could fill, but he remembered a time when he was scared of the silence. When the night was dark, and he was trapped between walls that echoed even the quietest of sounds. There was no late-night bickering in his house, nor any funny TV shows that erupted the house with laughter. There was only silence that bounced off the walls as the lights were turned off.

Those were the nights he hated most at home, when he was still in kindergarten. He often heard the other kids spewing off some nonsense of what it was like at their home, with loving parents and how their house was never quiet with their numerous pets and brothers and sisters. How they played games and shouted at each other over who won or what not, he wondered what it’d be like. So, he tried it. Max tried to be an honest person, he knew that his view on the world wasn’t that of a normal kid, and he knew it didn’t all happen at once, but he could still remember when it all changed, and he turned into who he was today.

Shaking his head, he walked onto one of the forest paths, he didn’t really plan on running away, didn’t really want to anymore. He just wanted to walk, think about a few things, get away from the quiet. He made sure to follow the paths in the forest, never straying away and keeping an eye out for any dangerous creatures. He may have hated David, but he listened to the man’s speeches better than he was given credit for.

So he played it safe, at least he did until he saw another path. The path was old and looked like nobody had even stepped place on it for a century, which immediately spelled out danger, but he couldn’t stop it when his feet dragged his way towards it. He walked down the path, growing more confident as time went on and nothing bad happened. But after a minute or so he decided that his feet got tired, so he sat down against a tree, facing the path.

His mind was carried away with his thoughts again as the distant howls of wolves calmed him from the silence. He knew he shouldn’t be calmed by the thought of giant, man-eating wolves howling but his mind found the sound soothing. He really hated the silence. He hated the unnatural mudery feeling it gave off, and hated the fact that anything could break it if it wanted to, but nothing ever did. How people could find it soothing he had no idea.

He dug his hands in his pockets as his eyes shut, listening as the forest’s silence eventually grew into its usual, messed up song. He would never admit it, at least no openly, especially in front of David, but he actually liked the forest, and nature. It was never really silent, and it always brought some sort of adventure. How could he hate nature when it brought him everything he needed, friends, sounds, social activity that didn’t involve being a punching bag. Granted, most of that came from the camp, but he refused to even think about liking camp. So he liked nature instead.

He felt like his entire body was drooping as he grew tired. He didn’t even fight it as he slowly fell asleep against the tree. It didn’t even occur to him that it’d be a bad thing to fall asleep in the middle of the forest, surrounded by dangerous animals on a path that hasn’t been walked through for at least a decade.

 

_Max was walking home, he felt bitter inside as the winter chills froze him. He wished his parents could pick him up from kindergarten today, but they said they couldn’t, he was okay with it though, he understood they were busy. He didn’t want to impose on them, not when his mum said that she had to earn money for him._

_It didn’t help that he had to watch his friends get picked up by their parents though. He always stayed to watch the love and affection between his friends and their parents, or brothers, or sisters. He tried not to feel jealous, his dad said it was a bad emotion. But he couldn’t help it, he had to listen to everyone complain how their parents bickered over money at night, or how their brother always groaned about homework._

_So, he decided that he’d try to go along with what they said they did to get their parents attention. He got home and was excited, he’d never really tried to get the attention or affection of his parents before. He wondered what would happen when he got it, would they play with him? Or maybe watch a movie together, like Finding Nemo! Or maybe Sleeping Beauty, he always liked the dragon scene in that movie._

_He waited impatiently for his parents to come home, he watched as the clocks hands moved, he couldn’t read what the time actually was, but he knew his parents always came home when the small hand pointed at the eight. The hours ticked by as the sky outside turned dark, but eventually, his parents came home. They looked tired and sad, like they usually did, but he hoped maybe they would cheer up once they started playing and having fun._

_“Mummy! Daddy!” He ran up to them and jumped up on his dad’s leg, hugging against it while he smiled up at them. They seemed shock at his hug-attack for a second, but soon that shock turned into something he’d seen far too often on his dad’s face. Anger._

_“Maximillian! What do you think your doing?” His voice echoed through the empty house, he felt himself being picked up by his shirt. He looked into the eyes of his dad’s angry glare, before he looked at his mum’s face, silently begging for help, but she looked just as upset. “You do not just jump onto us, we are your parents, and need to be respected.” He was put down, and watched as his parents walked past him. Silence rang through the house once more before he got the guts to speak up._

_“I was just thinking… maybe we could hang out! Like a family, watch a movie together maybe?” He looked at the ground and spoke with his hands, desperately trying to speak what he had hoped for, he still believed they could be like other families, that if he explained what he wanted to do, that his parents would understand and want to that too. “Oh! We could watch the Incredibles! It’s about superheroes and -” The house echoed with the sound of a hand connecting to his cheek. He fell over on his back as he looked up at his dad, the glare was terrifying._

_“We aren’t children, and we will not stoop to such childish activities. The fact that you even suggested it disgusts me.” His dad walked away from him, his mum just looked shocked as the house faded to silence, but his dad just spoke up once more before it completely fell. “The world isn’t for children, it’s for people like us. People who work, and know how to run a business, and know that there’s nothing fun or cheerful about life. Grow up Max, you’ll never survive if you keep being a child.”_

_That was the first and last time his dad ever hit him. Everything changed after it happened though, his dad was never in the same room as him since, and ignored all mentions of him since. It didn’t take long for him to turn into the cynical kid he was known for being after that though. He quickly learned his place in the world, and how it ran. His parents turned into ‘mother’ and ‘father’ instead of ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ and the house fell silent._

_It was usually days before his parents returned after leaving, they hired a nanny for the first few months of it happening, but they never stayed long. Not when their son was ‘a fire-breathing little devil’ he heard one of them call him. So they took to leaving him alone. And he learned to hate the silence that followed. It was the usual for his family now, they would leave, and he would survive._

_He went through the years, making enemies but never friends, often coming home beaten. He’d fix himself up, before going through the same routine until his parents came home. They’d stay for a day before leaving again and the whole thing would repeat. Until his ninth birthday, five years after the incident that changed his life forever, his parents signed him up for a summer camp four hours away from his home. He got on the bus and watched as his parents already leaving car drew farther and farther from him._

 

Max woke up, startled that he dreamt of that day. He had blocked the memory from his mind, refusing to admit that that day even happened. He put a hand up to his cheek and flinched as if he was hit all over again. He took a deep breath before standing up. He forgot he fell asleep in the middle of the forest, but he seemed to still have all his limbs, so he counted it as a win.

“Max?” He heard his name almost before it was even said, if that was possible. His head shot towards the all too familiar voice. David. “Max, please tell me your close by!” With a sigh he walked towards the voice before almost running into the man, he was closer than he thought he was.

“Hey David.”

“Max! There you are! What on earth were you doing all the way out here? Don’t you know it’s dangerous in this part of the forest! Or any part of the forest for that matter.” He started rambling off about the dangers of the forest, which he already knew about, as he checked the boy for any injuries.

“Sorry, I just came to clear my mind.” He never apologised for anything, so he didn’t really know what he was saying when he said it, but he felt like he owed the man an apology for everything, so even if it wasn’t for everything he’d done, it was still an apology. “I kept to the paths though.” With a sigh, David stood to his full height before smiling down at him.

“If you just wanted to think, you could’ve come found me. It doesn’t seem like it but sometimes I don’t have everything under control either.”

“David, you never have anything under control.” The man scratched his neck awkwardly before smiling, determined again. He stayed silent as he jerked his head in a way that said ‘follow me’ before continuing to walk down the dark path. “Where the fuck are we going?” Despite his instincts telling him to run as far away from the path as possible, he followed David deeper into the dark trees and towards the howling wolves.

The two stayed silent during the walk, listening to the sounds of the forest as he follows. Soon though, they reach the side of a cliff. It was way too high to climb, and too big to walk around too, he was confused on what they were supposed to do here, unless David was actually a serial killer and he was his next victim. But instead, he watched as David made his way through heavy moss, walking through what he assumed was a giant wall of rock. He watched as David smiled, lifting some of the moss for him to get through.

He hesitated for a second before going with him, he made his way through a small cave before reaching the other side to reveal a beautiful opening. It was like it was the centre of a mountain was carved out, it looked like they were inside a giant bowl of rock, but inside it had trees and meadows and a lake near one end. It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, including that whole thing with the quartermaster and that king squirrel. He watched as David sat near the lake and looked up at the sky like he was at peace for once.

“So, Max, I know you said you needed to clear your mind, but that’s not the only reason… is it?” He debated whether he should lie or be honest, but he felt like if he lied, it’d corrupt a part of this paradise, so with a sigh he shook his head. “You don’t need to tell me what, but just know I’m here if you ever wanted to talk about it.” The conversation died off after that, and the opening grew silent. He hated silence. He sat there, staring at the water for a while, wondering if it’d be worth it if he started a conversation with David or to put up with the silence.

It was a lose-lose situation really, and he hated it. He looked over at the man, he seemed happy. But not his usual happy, this seemed like a peaceful happy. Like that calm happy you get when reading, or listening to a calming song. It was… nice, if he was being honest.

He looked at the sky again, watching the stars shine brightly again as the dark sky slowly faded to a soft pinkish orange colour. With a few deep breathes, and the constant shouting in his head to get rid of the silence, he looked at David before he spoke.

“I hate silence.” He didn’t add to the sentence, just hoping that David would pick up from what he was trying to say, he wasn’t the best at conversation, or speaking what was on his mind, but he knew his hatred for silence overcame his hatred of David, so he could put up with the man’s ramblings for a little while longer.

“Oh? Is that why you went into the forest?” He nodded, and David paused before smiling. “In that case, how about I play you a song? I know you don’t usually like my conversations so maybe I could just play something for you instead?” He grabbed his guitar from who knows where, with a soft smile. Max stared at the man, who apparently knew him better than he thought before he felt himself smiling back.

“As long as it's not that god-awful camp song.” David laughed before tuning his guitar and began playing a soft melody.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Nothing was said after that, the two stayed silent but he listened as David played a soothing melody on his guitar. Max looked at the sky as its colours changed, preparing to turn into its usual light blue for the day. It felt nice, being here with David, and for once, he found himself thinking, maybe David isn’t so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! So I've had this idea stuck in my head for a while that Max hates silence, so I decided to try to write a shortish oneshot on it, I hope you enjoyed it! It is unedited though so I'm sorry for any mistakes there may be, anyways! I hope you have a good rest of your day/night! Bye!


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